"In the magnificent tradition of Gore Vidal's Lincoln and Burr, Max Byrd dispels the mists of myth and history to reveal a Thomas Jefferson we've never met before: an enigmatic statesman who fights for individual liberty even as he keeps numerous slaves in bondage, who champions free will even as he denies it to his daughters, and who holds men to the highest standards of honor - even as he embarks on a shadowy double life of his own.
It is 1784, and Jefferson, the newly appointed American ambassador to the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, has just arrived in Paris to represent his fledgling nation. It is a city adrift in intrigue, upheaval, and temptation, a city that will challenge Thomas Jefferson's principles, incite his passions, and change him forever.
Through the eyes of William Short, Jefferson's young secretary and avid protégé, we peer into the public life of the future president, watching the forces that shape the young Thomas Jefferson as he builds his dream of an America with fellow patriots Adams and Ben Franklin, and as he struggles between political ambition and an unexpected crisis of the heart with a woman who has the power to destroy him.
Jefferson offers a rare glimpse behind the face this complex Virginian showed the world. Subject to periods of dark melancholy, cold anger, and interludes of romantic intimacy, Thomas Jefferson committed acts of exquisite mercy and profound ruthlessness. Here, we encounter the rumors of misconduct that dogged him in his rise to power, his bitter feuds with political opponents Patrick Henry and Aaron Burr, and the pivotal role he played in the bitter War of Independence.
From the shores of the Potomac to the boulevards of the Champs-Elysees, Jefferson marks the debut of a major talent in historical fiction, offering stunning new insights into a character of Shakespearean grandeur and tragedy, and a rich, unforgettable story of the elusive and passionate figure whose words and imagination may be said to have invented America" [from the dust jacket]